The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

Book Description

Pray they are hungry.

Kara finds the words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle’s house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring this peculiar area—only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts…and the more one fears them, the stronger they become.

Review

I’m not bothered by risk when I’m in control of it. I mean, I’m a licensed skydiver, scuba diver, and ride motorcycles. To make these activities possible, I trust my systems and gear, and lean into my training. So it’s not like I’m fear-averse.

However, there’s a type of particular unease that comes from familiar spaces behaving incorrectly. A door where there shouldn’t be one. Or a hallway that stretches too far. A room that doesn’t belong to the house you know.

In your home, it would be scary, but in a novel, it’s creepy fun, like boarding a rollercoaster or walking into a Halloween haunted house. The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher fits squarely into that space. It’s atmospheric and weird.

Like Kingfisher, I’ve always had a soft spot for portal stories, especially the kind that begin in ordinary places. There’s something about the idea that your world might contain a hidden seam, or a door you haven’t noticed yet, that feels both magical and deeply unsettling. It’s the quiet realization that once you step through to the other side, the rules you live by no longer apply.

Kingfisher plays with that tension well. The other world in The Hollow Places isn’t whimsical or inviting. It’s strange in a way that resists explanation, filled with quiet wrongness and moments slightly out of alignment. The horror isn’t constant. Instead, the story delivers a delicious, creeping dread.

What surprised me most, though, was how funny the book is.

There’s a steady undercurrent of humor running through the story, mostly in the dialogue and the main character’s voice. It shouldn’t work, but it does. The humor doesn’t erase the fear so much as sit beside it, sharpening each unsettling moment. The story is weird and genuinely eerie, but also oddly charming and entertaining. It’s playful, and a book where you might laugh on one page even though you hesitate before turning to the next.

The Hollow Places is a great story if you enjoy horror that leans more toward eerie than brutal, or crave a memorable, slightly off-kilter read.

Content Warning

Alcohol, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Injury, Gun violence, Murder, Self-harm, Torture, Violence

The header photo is a composite image. Base image by Shaida Safi on Unsplash